Palladino: Despite loss, Bears still walk off as champions By Joe Palladino Republican-American

UNCASVILLE -- It is a scene that played out seven times this weekend at the Mohegan Sun Arena. As one basketball team holds aloft a state championship trophy, another walks off the court in defeat.

I say seven times because, of the eight state championship games, there was one notable exception.

As the Capital Prep girls basketball team raced on the floor to accept the Class S championship trophy, the runner-up Thomaston girls had their own business to attend to. The girls hoisted onto their shoulders the team's two senior captains, Maggie Eberhardt and Sydney Keith.

To a loud ovation from the Thomaston cheering section, the Bears left the arena like no runner-up I have ever seen. Yes, there were tears, but they were tinged with far more joy than sadness.

Thomaston left the arena the way only a champion should go.

Capital Prep won the Class S title, 84-55, and looked every bit like a hoop

See BEARS, Page 7C

juggernaut.

Early in the game, the raucous Thomaston fans chanted, "Over-rated."

Um, that wasn't exactly true.

Whatever they were rated, over or under, the Trailblazers deserved every bit of it. My only question about Capital after the game was this: How many boys high school teams could these ladies beat?

I think a lot.

So the "over-rated" chant was inaccurate. But this one was spot on: "Played your hearts out."

Absolutely true. By the way, that was said for the benefit of the Thomaston girls, and it comes as no surprise. That part of the game is not news. We knew the Bears would do that.

The Bears also gave Capital its toughest state tourney game as well as its toughest in-state game since back in December, when Capital beat Career Magnet by 19.

The Trailblazers are so stocked and so loaded, with virtually all underclassmen, that they needed to go out of state during the regular season to find opponents that would challenge them. They should have kept playing out of state. No one in these parts can deal with these girls.

In the end, the Class S tournament was a three-week coronation march for Capital Prep, but I still liked the crown worn by the Bears on Saturday.

As one pundit noted, if you take Capital out of Class S — and it is absurd for them to play in the Class S tourney — then Thomaston is the best Class S basketball team in this state.

They knew it, and now we know it, too.

After Friday's last practice in The Cave, the team got into the carrying mood by putting Eberhardt and Keith on their shoulders then, too.

"It was a memorable moment," Eberhardt said Saturday. "I am never going to forget that and being here with Syd, who is one of my best friends. We have played together for so long."

The final ride off the floor was actually a promise kept from Thomaston coach Bob McMahon.

"Our coach always told us he was going to carry us off the floor in our final game, no matter what," Eberhardt said. "He said that since mine and Sydney's sophomore year. And here they did it. They carried us at practice the other day."

McMahon was also carrying some difficult emotions Saturday. It wasn't easy seeing his team fall to Capital.

"We got our butts kicked," McMahon said. "There's no denying that. They are impressive. We refused to lay down, knowing the result. But we walk out of here with our heads held high, representing our town and playing Thomaston basketball."

That was accomplished, but so much more, also.

"It was a special moment at the end," McMahon continued. "It was about those two seniors, but you know what, we've had a bunch of them in the past that I wish we could have done that for."

I suspect that a lot of former Thomaston players felt the rush of pride that Eberhardt and Keith felt Saturday. There were more than a few players who shared that ride, in spirit at least.

"We knew Friday was our last practice," McMahon said. "We talked about how great a day it was going to be (Saturday), and that champions are the only ones carried off the floor."

McMahon planted that thought into the head of each player and, son of a gun, his words were prophetic. Champions were carried off the floor at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday.

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